YOON ANNOUNCES MINISTER NOMINEES

[Anchor Lead]

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has announced the nominees for eight ministers. He said he looked at their capabilities instead of filling quotas for diversity. However, critics say the Cabinet would be skewed toward men in their 60s from the Gyeongsang-do region just as the transition committee was filled with male graduates of Seoul National University in their 50s.

[Pkg]

Korea got a glimpse of the Yoon government’s Cabinet on Sunday. It was mostly made up of male graduates of Seoul National University in their 60s from the Gyeongsang-do region. Yoon announced the eight nominees and explained why he picked them.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect) : "We only looked at whether they are the best people to lead their respective field for the nation and people."

Yoon said they were nominated based solely on their capabilities, once again confirming his initial stance that quotas or equal distribution would not be considered.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect) : "There are still many more public positions to be filled. I believe that regional, generational and gender balance can eventually be achieved because talented people are not clustered in just one area."

But his choices were immediately criticized for what critics called the skewed characteristics of the nominees. The average age of the nominees was 60.5 and not a single person was younger than 50. As for their home regions, five came from the Yeongnam region. No one from Gangwon-do Province and the Honam region was even considered in the preliminary round. Three nominees graduated from Seoul National University, followed by two each from Kyungpook National University and Korea University. There was only one woman among the eight nominees. Critics pointed out that balance in terms of home region, school and policy leaning was lacking in this selection. Just as Yoon's transition committee was packed with male SNU graduates in their 50s, the Cabinet would be filled with men in their 60s from the Gyeongsang-do region. The People Power Party countered that such an attack is an old political tactic that attempts to find a flaw with the new administration from the beginning. Yoon said he would name additional nominees as soon as they are vetted. Given that confirmation hearing requests have to be filed with the National Assembly, nominees for ten remaining ministers are likely to be announced some time next week.